Analog's Anonymous

Friday, January 4, 2013

As promised, here are my picks for the best albums that 2012 had to offer. Some may be surprised, others may not, but on the whole I am proud of this list and what I have to say on each album's behalf (even if some pretty much speak for themselves). Cheers to the works going to be released in 2013!

pssstt hey! There's an easter egg at the end. Thought you'd like to know.

1. Kendrick Lamar- good kid, m.A.A.d. city

Sometimes you’re told an album is a classic, and you just go
with it despite any concerns your ears may have to make you believe otherwise.
I myself resisted this album at first, mostly because I thought some of the
beats were too standard for 2012, or even 2008 for that matter. Obviously, the
focus really isn’t on the beats, but on Lamar’s ability to tell his
coming-of-age story with vivid descriptions that would rival most professional
novelists. Suddenly everything fell into place, and then I came to realize just
how perfect the beats captured the harried spirit of 2012 anyway. Sign of a
classic indeed.

Before the album was released, I used to have customers
frequently coming into the Wooden Nickel Music store wondering where we kept
our Kendrick Lamar CD’s. I was completely unaware of the towering hype
surrounding the guy, so I naturally assumed he was just another rapper in the
same vein as Rick Ross, Machine Gun Kelly, or even Meek Mill for that matter.
Then good kid, m.A.A.d city was
released, and much to my utter surprise and delight, it indeed looked like we
had another prophet on our hands whose album seemed similar to the impact of The Marshall Mathers LP, which was
released a full 12 years ago (if you can believe such facts). Okay, maybe it’s
not breaking record sales like Eminem’s album, but both of their impacts on the
given place and time they were released feels undeniable and damn near
ubiquitous. If it weren’t for Taylor Swift releasing her album Red, in close proximity to this album,
who knows how big it might have got, and how many more people it might have
been able to reach.

Nevertheless, every bit of success this album and Lamar for
that matter are currently enjoying is well deserved. I still can’t listen to
“Swimming Pools (Drank)” without its chorus being lodged in my head all day. I
frequently visit “Backseat Freestyle” whenever I want to hear the 21st
century update of “Peter Piper.” Most importantly, whenever I need a good
reality check, I turn to the album’s 12-minute epic centerpiece “Sing About Me,
I’m Dying of Thirst.”

Anymore, I’m growing more concerned about Dr. Dre’s ability
to produce meaningful music since his focus these days seems to be hanging on obtaining
a Forbes’ feature highlighting his Beats Headphones entrepreneurship (even
incorporating a shameless endorsement spot on Rick Ross’ “3 Kings” track), but
fortunately for all of us, he still hasn’t forgotten how to recognize pure talent
and properly mix tracks. Just like Snoop Dogg (or Snoop Lion?) and Eminem
before him, Kendrick Lamar deserves to be among the most valued of Dre’s
protégés. If discovering Lamar and mixing his album causes the already
long-overdue Detox to be delayed
further, I have absolutely no complaints against that.

Highlights:

Pretty much the whole thing

02: Frank Ocean- Channel
Orange

A few music publications have Ocean’s debut right up at the
top of their lists, thus making it the prime contender for the Grammy award for
Album of the Year, even if I have a gut feeling that it might go to Mumford
& Sons’ Babel instead. But given
all of its pervasive emotion that you can’t help but be affected by, perhaps
what this album needs is a little humility. Frank is only human after all, but
a concept album that soars and covers so much ground in 62 minutes needs to
come back down to Earth eventually.

Thankfully, it rarely ever does. With an opener like
“Thinkin Bout You,” you are lifted off the ground slightly with the soft
strings, and when you realize that Ocean’s voice is too honest to be
Auto-Tuned, you begin to realize how truly special this album is. It can be
argued that Frank Ocean is the 21st century’s answer to Stevie
Wonder, but while the inspiration and influence is there, Channel Orange still feels like it could also be classified as a
rap album with how certain rhyme schemes come together. But tracks like “Super
Rich Kids,” and “Crack Rock,” both possess rap’s grand musical swagger with the
humbleness of R&B and Soul to create a truly inviting, and yet confrontational
view on contemporary love.

Regardless of your stance on homosexuality or bisexuality,
if you never knew about Frank Ocean’s declaration of his sexual preferences
otherwise, you’d never deny this album is about all kinds of love that is present
all around us, and not just your traditional heterosexual courtships. After
all, this album was named after Ocean’s Grapheme–color synesthesia experience
during the summer he first fell in love. If orange is the true color of love,
we have Frank Ocean to thank for letting us know.

Highlights:

“Thinkin’ Bout You”

“Super Rich Kids” (feat. Earl Sweatshirt)

“Crack Rock”

“Pyramids”

“Lost”

03: Swans- The Seer

To me, industrial and no-wave music are pretty much one in
the same, the only difference being that no-wave has a tendency to stray into
the abstract. When the Swans, or more specifically, Michael Gira, started
releasing music in the early 80’s with albums like Filth, or Holy Money, his
no-wave sound strayed into the abyss. I still can’t listen to “A Hanging” at
night without its horror movie grade sounds pervading my unconscious and
haunting my already twisted id when I go to sleep. Gira is big on droning, but
in his 30-year career, the droning was never boring, but instead conjured
entities that made you wonder about the dark side of humanity.

In 2012, Gira achieved the culmination of everything he ever
set out to convey with The Seer,
which does indeed brilliantly encompass his no-wave beginnings, his morph into
the alternative world in the 90’s, and finally, his desire to experiment with
jarring ambience being the impetus for what is consistently being praised as
his seminal masterwork. But what stymies me most about The Seer is how it has managed to earn all of these accolades, when
most respectable music publications tend to thumb their nose at music that is
this aggressive, overbearing, and inaccessibly spooky. To give you an example,
Rolling Stone doesn’t feature this in their best albums of 2012 list, yet they
ranked Green Day’s ¡Uno! at number 8.
Then again, I’m reminded of how praise is fairly and impartially due when the
right critics recognize a work for what it truly is. With The Seer, Gira has managed to give the popular music world the
biggest middle finger imaginable, and those like myself who adore the album are
suckling on its eccentricities with enthusiasm.

At a towering two hours+, you definitely get your money’s
worth one way or another. Sure, you may feel exhausted by the end, but you may
notice just how surprised you are when you realize just how quickly it goes
too. The title track alone takes over half an hour to develop, build, and
finally burst at the seams, but you never feel like Gira is wasting precious
time and indulging himself in endurance levels that only he can withstand. This
album may be more suited for seasoned music fans who purposely seek out the
most impenetrable and inaccessible music that tests boundaries, but causal
music fans who seek out The Seer will
be rewarded too.

Highlights:

“Lunacy”

“The Seer”

“The Seer Returns”

“93 Ave. B Blues”

“Song for a Warrior”

04: Killer Mike- R.A.P.
Music

I may have just started to listen to this album on the 18th
this month, but even on the first listen, I could tell that this was no mere
album, but a biting force to be reckoned with. If the name Killer Mike sounds
even slightly familiar to you, it’s because one of his first gigs was rapping
with OutKast back at the turn of the century in tracks like “Snappin’ &
Trappin’” off of Stankonia. If that
still doesn’t ring a bell, I know you must have heard his verse in “The Whole
World.” Even at the beginning of his career, it sure looked like Killer Mike
could easily be Big Boi’s apprentice with how his versatile flow seemed to
morph this way and that as he rhymed in double and triple time without
resorting to exhausting lyrical acrobatics that made rappers like Eminem look
desperate to impress an audience. Killer Mike is the anti-Eminem in this aspect
given how his spitting acts as a truly brutal complimentary piece to El-P’s
hyper-aggressive and bass-heavy production.

Speaking of which, my first exposure to El-P was back in my
Sophomore year of high school when I was in the throes of a deep obsession with
Nine Inch Nails. On the single to “Every Day is Exactly the Same,” there was
El-P’s remix of “Only” that stood out to me as one of the best remix jobs of
any NIN song I’ve heard. El-P may have been around since the mid-90’s with rap
groups like Company Flow, but his production work remains as exciting,
contemporary, and brutally pounding as ever. His use of sampling is also
something to sit up and take notice given how all of it sounds were mutilated
to fit in with El-P’s signature sound. In a documentary called Copyright Criminals, he says with a
slight smirk of confidence, “If you catch me, I didn’t do my job.”

Back to Killer Mike’s prowess as an incendiary rapper: the
topic of politics may be a routine grind for most people, especially given our
incredibly volatile times of political and economic woe, but his fuck-the-rich-and-corrupt
rhetoric strikes with more importance and relevance than any of his peers could
muster (even Big Boi). It’s also refreshing to hear a rapper who cares more
about the state of his home country than money, drugs or women. More
importantly, the album knows the importance of pacing, as its 45 minutes skates
by with fury and relevance that most rap artists desperately wish they could
employ. Rebellious African People Music indeed.

Highlights:

“Big Beast”

“Go!”

“Jojo’s Chillin’”

“Reagan”

05: Cloud Nothings- Attack
on Memory

As Dylan Baldi carelessly rips his vocal cords on the
opening, “No Future/No Past,” you immediately get the idea that this could very
well be the most necessary and vital emo album to be produced since Weezer’s Pinkerton, all the way back in 1996. I
can envision Baldi being a gaunt, hunched-over figure with a malnourished body being
suffocated with tight clothing, and greasy jet-black hair flopped over his face
like a dirty towel shredded to mere tatters of fabric. Baldi’s emotional fabric
is very tattered too, as he laments all his “Wasted Days,” and his unenviable
ability to “Stay Useless.” For all the lameness one suspects to hear on Attack on Memory with incredibly emo
descriptions like these, just this once you feel obligated to hear him out
about his youthful angst.

From what I understand, this is more or less a noticeable
departure from their self-titled effort whose cover even looks inviting and
friendly. Compare that to the gray starkness of Attack on Memory’s cover, which features a blurry image that may or
may not resemble an abandoned amusement park. With a thematic change like this,
the album’s production couldn’t have been managed by anybody else other than
Steve Albini. As an admirer of Albini’s no compromise approach to making a band
sound aggressive, I feel that this is the guy most bands seek out whenever they
want to make a “fuck you” album that tends to stand on its own in a band’s
discography. Despite Baldi’s claim that Albini probably doesn’t remember what
the album sounds like given his set-up-the-microphones-and-leave-the-band-alone
approach (not to mention how Albini mostly played Facebook Scrabble during the
production), it nonetheless has that essential Albini vibe that artists like
Kurt Cobain, Black Francis (Frank Black?), Kim Deal, and PJ Harvey sought out
when they were at a musical and career crossroads.

And for a relatively fresh and naïve band like Cloud
Nothings to employ Albini’s sound so early in their career can only be a sign that
perhaps Cloud Nothings don’t plan on doing this when they hit 30. It sounds
like an album that was adapted from a journal of the most hardened emotional
sentiments Baldi has to offer that speaks to so many people between the ages of
15-30. But it’s not exclusively for that audience. It’s for everyone who still
feels misunderstood or just hasn’t found their true purpose in life yet, and passively
wanders through all their wasted days.

Highlights:

“No Future/No Past”

“Wasted Days”

“Separation”

06: Dr. John- Locked
Down

I’m a bit displeased to see that this album is being snubbed
by some music publications on their year-end best-of lists. But why? Is it too
funky and not R&B enough like his older albums? Does it sound too much like
a Black Keys album considering Dan Auerbach was at the helm of producing the
album? Or could it even be overrated? Nonsense. It may not be soft-spoken, so
why is it being treated as such? Maybe I could be overreacting, but in no way
do I feel that Locked Down is even
slightly inferior to, say, Dr. John’s Gumbo,
Gris-Gris, or maybe even In the Right Place. To have Dr. John
release an album in 2012 that perfectly culminates what he does best must have
been a sign that maybe all he needed to become relevant again was to place his
new material in the hands of someone who is definitely in tune with modern
music. And Dan Auerbach was the guy who made it all happen.

Just like with Dr.
John’s Gumbo, the opening title track to Locked Down grabs your attention and just doesn’t feel like letting
go until it feels like you’ve had your fair share of fun. Normally, I can tell
a filler track from just the first 30 seconds or so of a song, but Locked Down turns out to be one of those
albums that have mere moments of filler, not whole filler tracks. For an album
that lasts 42 minutes, that’s quite an accomplishment that is not easily
achieved.

Given that Dr. John’s classic albums were made back when he
was a heroin addict, his sobriety doesn’t mean that his edge has dulled. With Locked Down, his edge seems to have
gotten sharper, if that’s possible. Throughout his near 40-year career, to
release an album like Locked Down,
Dr. John has proven that there never was, and never gonna be another big shot
like him again.

Highlights:

“Locked Down”

“Big Shot”

“Kingdom of Izzness”

“My Children, My Angels”

07: Godspeed You! Black Emperor- ’Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

It seems as though everything has be properly and anally
aligned for Godspeed You! Black Emperor to release an album. But when the sun,
the stars, and all of the moons in the galaxy are in their most desirable
positions, that’s when fate itself reaches down to musicians like Thierry Amar,
David Bryant, Bruce Cawdron, Aidan Girt & Co. to come together and create
music that currently resides on mere plastic and vinyl discs that instead begs
to be etched in obsidian or gold.

Exaggerative? Okay, maybe. But no matter how you feel
towards the infinite instrumental jammings and ramblings of post-rock and noise
groups like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, there’s something about ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! that
needs to be heard by more people. Yes, even the teen and tweenagers who are
lumped into the same kind of crowds that prefer Top 40 radio, and never explore
anything beyond that. As artfully and meticulously executed as a song like
“Mladic” is, this is more along the lines of true art rock for people who also
have an appreciation for theatrics.

Clocking in at just over 53 minutes, it is by far the most
concise and worthwhile album Godspeed You! Black Emperor has produced since
they released their first album, F# A# ∞,
all the way back in 1997. I know to people my age it doesn’t seem like a
terribly long time ago, but considering this is just Godspeed’s fourth proper
album, it seems as though we’ll have to wait until all the prophetic elements
are in place again before Godspeed You! Black Emperor even thinks about writing
material that conjures musical elements to create a physically tangible jewel.

Highlights:

“Mladic”

“We Drift Like Worried Fire”

08. Tame Impala- Lonerism

Without Neil Young’s attempt at recapturing the psychedelic spirit
of the 60’s with Psychedelic Pill,
released within a couple weeks of this album, Tame Impala’s second album would
be the only straight up psychedelic rock album released this year worth
listening to, thus making the title, Lonerism,
the most appropriate title imaginable. Not just listening to though, but
actually reading into and wondering how the hell they’re managing to pull off oldie’s
psychedelic sounds like these that actually sound relevant in 2012.

If you look at the cover, you find yourself outside of a
gated community where people are relaxing, smiling, and having fun. Lonerism may be a loose concept album
about the power that is to be found in being alone, but the music itself feels
like such a collaborative effort that the whole thing feels conflicted. But in
turn, that means there’s something new to be found with each listen, and those
albums are the ones most worthy of recognition, are they not?

As long as the album feels, you just don’t get the feeling
your time is being wasted. Even if I have my suspicions that some material on
the album is filler, this lesser material is still worth more than most of its
peer’s imitations of the real thing. From “Be Above It,” and onwards, Tame
Impala wastes virtually no time getting to business and makes sure you feel
satisfied for every penny you spent on it.

Highlights:

“Be Above It”

“Apocalyptic Dreams”

09. Deftones- Koi No
Yokan

When it comes to longevity and persistence in the midst of
adversity, no other alternative metal band can compare with the mighty, mighty
Deftones. As consistently reliable as their discography has been, it seems as
though they are getting better with age, and Koi No Yokan is definite proof of such a statement. Many of their
90’s alternative metal contemporaries cannot say the same thing.

But what makes Koi No
Yokan truly note-worthy is how they manage to transcend above just the
realm of often emo alternative metal material. Some keyboards are put to good
use, and their shoegazing influences show up every so often to create wondrous
atmospheres. Under the guidance of producer, Nick Raskulinecz (who also
produced albums for Rush and Alice in Chains), the Deftones decided to carry on
after bassist Chi Cheng’s car accident in 2008 (which he is still slowly, but
surely recovering from), and released Diamond
Eyes in 2010, which is often cited as the band’s best work. Koi No Yokan could just as easily be the
Deftones’ new best moment, but how bittersweet it is that Cheng wasn’t able to
participate in its recording.

Regardless of whether or not you would want to focus on its few
potential shortcomings, there is a whole world of carefully arranged aggressive
music to be explored within Koi No Yokan,
which at this point, I should mention is Japanese for “Love’s Premonition.”
With track titles like “Romantic Dreams,” “Leathers,” “Poltergeist,” “Graphic
Nature, “ and “Rosemary,” one gets the idea that the Deftones have made an
album about love that not only sneers at the traditional pop clichés, but acts
like they don’t even exist. If that’s not admirable trait for a band that’s
nearing their 20-year milestone, I don’t know what is.

Highlights:

“Swerve City”

“Rosemary”

“Romantic Dreams”

“Goon Squad”

10. Metz- Metz

For reasons I won’t go into here, I’ve recently had to spend
a fair amount of time in the waiting rooms of various medical facilities. I
recognize that spending an uncertain amount of time thumbing through old
magazines and crumpled newspapers while hearing the sick people around me hack
into their hands is incredibly tedious, so to alleviate this, I made the wise
decision of bringing my Zune with me as a companion. One of the albums I almost
always sought out during this trivial time was Metz’s self-titled debut, whose
cover accurately reflects the frustrations I felt both during the Fall semester
at school as well as waiting endlessly in hospitals.

It’s very fitting that I would choose this album as my main
listening companion because of how it makes the boring and tedious experience
of hanging out in waiting rooms a very invigorating one. Plus, you also have
song titles like “Headache,” and “Nausea” (perhaps even “Wasted”) to go along
with a medical theme. However, Metz did not make this album with the intention
of being a mere time killer (much less for people like me who really only
listen to it in waiting rooms), but mostly as a rattling testament to the
tedium of life itself. Look at the album artwork and try to empathize with the
kid who has his head buried in his arms on top of a pile of school textbooks
and binders. Instead of the kid crushing his weight on the books, the books are
crushing their weight on him.

The sound contained within the album is also crushing, and
what better way to kick off the album than with “Headache,” which gives you an
idea of what’s to come for the next 25 minutes or so. As unbearably noisy as
this album can be at times, it’s 28 minute running length feels like a brief
excursion into an exhausted mind that keeps getting pummeled by the boredom
around it. Likewise with boredom itself, you cannot escape it, but each time
you listen to the album, you emerge with a sense of energy you didn’t even know
you needed in order to keep moving on with your life.

Highlights:

“Headache”

“Rats”

“Knife in the Water”

“Wasted”

Extra Credit Honorable Mentions (a.k.a.: the albums I forgot
to include in the original honorable mention list)

Fiona Apple- The Idler
Wheel is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You
More than Ropes Will Ever Do

I’m not sure how this can be classified as an alternative
rock album when there are so many piano tracks, upright basses, truck
stompers, thighs, bouzoukis, teiscos,and other instruments that are anything
but conventional for alternative. With the ground covered in this album, Apple
could be the female version of Tom Waits.

Baroness- Yellow &
Green

The ever-reliable Baroness gets stranger for the latest in
their series of albums named after colors, and proves they’re a more digestible
form of Tool.

Aesop Rock- Skelethon

Brisk
and urgent as if Aesop Rock has yet to prove himself in the rap world, but is
rarely unconfident or uncertain.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

I find it sadly ironic that some of my favorite artists released some turds this year that do nothing beneficial for their legacy. Anyway, they must be mentioned nonetheless so we can learn from their mistakes, and hope for something more worthwhile from them in the future. I would also like to note that just because I have named the following as the worst 2012 had to offer, they are actually kind of far from my least favorite albums of all time, not to mention that the albums I've listed herein could actually be better than a few titles I have purposely neglected to listen to. Likewise with any form of criticism though, it is simply a matter of opinion. Ain't that great?

Marilyn Manson- Born Villain

Shock rockers’
relevance with a mass audience wasn’t designed to last, and all Manson’s new
album does to prove that notion wrong is to misguidedly try to re-shock an
audience that has long since ditched him. It’s a sad case, but realistically
true. It’s especially disheartening considering the man is a highly intelligent
social critic, even though you may or may not choose to acknowledge it. It’s
just too bad he would rather dwell in artsy-fartsy purgatory when there’s so
much political and popular discourse to dissect and hold up in front of his
audience to see how ugly it truly is. Manson’s strengths have always relied
upon him doing just that sort of thing, and it worked brilliantly in his
trilogy of Antichrist Superstar,
Mechanical Animals, and Holy Wood (In
the Shadow of the Valley of Death), but it may just be that political
rantings seem too clichéd to him. His loss.

Whatever his
reason for settling for mediocrity may be, it just didn’t translate into a
relevant album that Manson fans know he needed to create in order to keep his
career alive. In its defense though, it is loads better than anything he has
done post-Holy Wood. But whatever
Manson chooses to do for his next album, he damn sure better come out swinging
like his own life depends on it.

Ministry- Relapse

Ministry’s turbulent
sound has never been easy to digest, but this album might as well be the musical
equivalent of a nut log covered in Gouda cheese. When Ministry announced their
retirement in 2007, it was very fitting considering critics like myself were
thankful that there was at least a few musicians in the industry who knew when
to quit on a high note before they got overly stale. But, in true Al Jourgensen
fashion, he decided to piss all over that favor, and actually named this year’s
comeback album, Relapse. As if he
didn’t already know that Eminem beat him to that idea a whole three years
ago.

As fast and
furious as the Bush trilogy was, at least there were a bounty of memorable
tunes that I actually knew lyrics to and frequently sang in my head. I’ve
listened to Relapse at least 4 times this
year, and I can only recall just “Ghouldiggers.” From there, Jourgensen &
Co. relentlessly pound out millions of quickly-strummed notes, sometimes all at
once, and employ a drum machine that is stubbornly stuck on a full-thrash
setting. I speculated in my original review that former band mate, Paul Barker,
was perhaps the system of checks and balances that a thrash junkie like
Jourgensen needed to prevent Ministry’s work from becoming stunningly
monotonous. Since Barker jumped ship in 2003, some of Ministry’s works have
become mostly an endless blur of fury that ends up signifying very little.

Justin Bieber- Believe

As much musical potential
as I see in Bieber, I just don’t believe he has come close to reaching it yet,
despite what Bieber himself thinks. Mostly because of the huge albatross of
corporate and popular expectations weighing down this potential like a lead
millstone. I recently read that he will be releasing a more intimate acoustic
album in the same style as the sort of material he put out when he was first
being discovered by Usher (just for kicks, imagine Bieber’s own version of American Recordings). However, since
he’s still the property of Island records, who knows how intimate this acoustic
album could possibly be. Until we know for sure, all we have to base his legacy
on as of now are lyrics like, “Swag, swag, swag on you/ Chillin’ by the fire
while we’re eating fondue.” Not to mention how his prominent tabloid relationship
with Selena Gomez was probably more note-worthy than his music.

Apparently in
the world of pre-teen, teen, and tween bubblegum pop naivety, whoever has the ‘swag’
has the power to deprive them of their money and dignity. Listening to Believe only made me believe that I was
slowly being lowered into a vat of pink taffy whose sticky-sweetness threatened
to make me feel sick, then consume me whole. I know that sounds a bit dramatic,
but until you’ve heard the thing for yourself, all you have to do is just
believe in me rather than Bieber.

Green Day- ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, & ¡Tré!

As Green Day
gets older, they remain the same age, much to the delight of their loyal fans,
but much to my own chagrin. At least with albums like Warning and their rock operas of American Idiot and 21st
Century Breakdown, as mature, yet pompous as they were, they sounded like
Green Day were growing up and acting their age. However, with this album
trilogy, they not only failed to maintain an air of maturity, but they actually
managed to regress musically too.

As sappy as I
felt Justin Bieber’s lyrics were, they actually seemed appropriate for his age considering
Billie Joe is now 40 years old, but still writing like he’s a sexually confused/frustrated/longing
16 year-old. Not that there’s anything wrong with trying to console or relate
to your target audience of high schoolers, but for God’s sake, if you’re going
to do it, do not say things like, “Won’t you be my bloody valentine?” or “Everybody’s
drama queen/ is old enough to bleed now.” Those could just as easily be a lyric
from the bottomless pit of emo alternative metal bands who wish to share their
most sappy sentiments with teenagers who probably have bigger things to worry
about like math homework or even if they should bother combing their hair today.

As loyal as
Green Day fans tend to be, their loyalty is tested to the extreme with this
latest “collect-‘em-all!” trilogy that tests how willing true fans are to
separate themselves from at least 30 dollars of their money. I’m not sure if I
can recall an instance where a band felt the need to take advantage of their
fanbase’s loyalty to such an extent, but I am thankful I merely streamed the
material instead. To separate myself from such an amount of money in order to
hear a power pop first part (with far more emphasis on pop than their signature
power style), a decent, yet also half-assed garage rock second part, and
finally an anti-climactic mix of the first two parts in ¡Tré!, would certainly make me more than willing to publicly damn
them, and let them know just how I feel with the sheer pomposity of their
latest work.

But to save you and myself
from an endless self-important rant on Green Day’s decline, I feel compelled to
remind everyone, including myself, that this trilogy was merely the product of
Green Day having actual experimentation fun in the studio for the first time
since 1997’s Nimrod. If this trilogy
is what they needed to do in order to recharge their batteries for a better
album the next time around, then I guess I can condone this abundant display of
mindless indulgence for now. Other than that, I don’t see myself revisiting
this chapter in Green Day’s career anytime soon, or ever again for that matter.